After October 12th, 2021, using the AdMob API will be the only way you can access your AdMob data programmatically. The AdMob API helps app developers retrieve:
metrics that are consistent with the AdMob UI definitions and calculations
mediation reports that are not available through the AdSense API
What do I need to do?
Start migrating from the AdSense API to the AdMob API as soon as possible. If you do not complete the migration by October 12th, 2021, you will lose access to AdMob data through the AdSense API, which may impact your ability to make data-driven business decisions.
Follow the instructions in the migration guide to migrate your API workflow. Review these additional resources to support your migration:
Get started with the AdMob API - Follow this guide to learn how to generate credentials and make your first request using the AdMob API.
Reference documentation - Find detailed information on each REST method and its specific parameters.
After October 12th, 2021, using the AdMob API will be the only way you can access your AdMob data programmatically. The AdMob API helps app developers retrieve:
metrics that are consistent with the AdMob UI definitions and calculations
mediation reports that are not available through the AdSense API
What do I need to do?
Start migrating from the AdSense API to the AdMob API as soon as possible. If you do not complete the migration by October 12th, 2021, you will lose access to AdMob data through the AdSense API, which may impact your ability to make data-driven business decisions.
Follow the instructions in the migration guide to migrate your API workflow. Review these additional resources to support your migration:
Get started with the AdMob API - Follow this guide to learn how to generate credentials and make your first request using the AdMob API.
Reference documentation - Find detailed information on each REST method and its specific parameters.
There are no new updates to share this week. Please see below for a recap of published announcements.
Previous announcements
The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.
Edit details in line with Google Tasks on the web You can now add additional information to your personal tasks without opening the “Details” dialog box. | Learn more.
Admins will now be alerted when there is an issue with their Google Voice auto attendants or ring groups Admins will now receive an alert in the Admin console’s Alert Center when an issue is detected with their auto attendant or ring group configuration along with instructions on how to quickly resolve the issue. | Learn more.
Admins will now be alerted when there is an issue with their Google Voice auto attendants or ring groups Google Vault now supports new Google Sites. You can use Google Vault to set retention policies for Google Sites, perform searches of Google Sites data, and export Google Sites content. | Learn more.
Apply context-aware access policies to mobile and desktop applications Admins can now assign existing or new context-awareaccess levels to Google desktop and mobile applications. | Learn more.
When Jennifer Daniel, Google’s creative director for emoji, first joined the Unicode Technical Committee, she wondered, what’s the deal with the handshake emoji? Why isn’t there skin tone support? “There was a desire to make it happen, and it was possible to make it happen, but the group appeared to be stuck on how to make it happen,” Jennifer says.
So in 2019, she submitted the paperwork for Unicode to consider the addition of the multi-skin toned handshake.The proposal detailed how to create 25 possible combinations of different skin tones shaking hands. But encoding it all would be time-consuming; creating a new emoji can take up to two years, Jennifer explains. And while a regular, one-tone handshake emoji already existed, this particular addition would require making two new emoji hands (a right hand in all the various skin tone shades and a left in the various skin tone shades) in order to, as Jennifer explains, “make the ‘old’ handshake new again.”
Every Unicode character has to be encoded; it’s like a language, with a set of rules that are communicated from a keyboard to a computer so that what you see on your screen looks the way it’s supposed to. This is called binary — or all the ones and zeros behind the scenes that make up everything you see on the internet.
Every letter you are reading on this screen is assigned a code point. The Letter A? It’s Unicode code point U+0041, Jennifer says. When you send a word with the letter “A” to someone else, this code is what ensures they will see it. “So when we want to send a ?, which maps to U+1f926, that code point must be understood on the other end regardless of what device the recipient is using,” she says.
This means when one emoji can come in different forms — like with gender or skin tone options — the coding gets more complex. “If emoji are letters, think of it this way: How many accent marks can you add to a letter? Adding more detail, like skin tone, gender or other customization options like color, to emoji gets more complicated.” Adding skin tone to the handshake emoji meant someone had to propose a solution that operated within the strict limitations of how characters are encoded.
That someone was Jennifer. “I build on the shoulders of giants,” she quickly explains. “The subcommittee is made up of volunteers, all of whom are generous with their expertise and time.” First, Jennifer looked at existing emoji to see if there were any that could be combined to generate all 25 skin tone combinations. “When it appeared that none would be suitable — for instance, ? ? are great but also a very different greeting — we had to identify new additions That’s when we landed on adding a leftwards hand and a rightwards hand.” Once these two designs and proposals were approved and code points assigned, the team could then propose a multi-skin toned handshake that built on the newly created code for each hand.
Aside from the actual coding, COVID-19 added new hurdles. Jennifer had proposed the emoji in November 2019 with the expectation it would land on devices in 2021, but because of COVID-19, all Unicode deployments were delayed six months.
Fortunately, the multi-skin toned handshake emoji should appear in the next release, Emoji 14.0, meaning you should see it appear in 2022. For Jennifer, it’s exciting to see it finally come to fruition. “These kinds of explorations are really important because the Unicode Consortium and Google really care about bringing inclusion into the Unicode Standard,” she says. “It’s easy to identify ‘quick solutions’ but I try to stop and ask what does equitable representation really look like, and when is it just performative?”
“Every time we add a new emoji, there’s a risk it could exclude people without our consciously knowing it,” Jennifer explains. “The best we can do is ensure emoji continue to be as broad, flexible and fluid as possible. Just like language. Just like you. ?”
Like any savvy entrepreneur, Marisa Moore first launched a website to promote her brand and attract more business. “It was back in 2008,” recalls Marisa, an Atlanta-based registered dietitian and nutritionist. “I was making regular appearances on CNN and different media outlets. And I wanted a way for people to be able to easily find me. So, I put up marisamoore.com and started sharing nutrition tips.”
Since then, Marisa’s website has grown to become a key ingredient in her recipe for success — leading to more consulting work, media appearances and most recently, a cookbook-writing opportunity. She uses her blog to “to share (mostly) vegetarian recipes, credible nutrition information and a peek into my Southern roots and travels!” Popular posts promote Marisa’s brand of healthy and delicious nutrition, such as recipes for Mediterranean chickpea pasta salad and peanut butter banana breakfast cookies.
Marisa’s blog serves up healthy veggie recipes with a Southern flair
Here are a few tasty highlights from our recent conversation with Marisa.
Tell us about how you went from having zero online presence to becoming a content creator.
It was a natural transition from sharing things with people one-to-one or in groups or in classes offline, to sharing that information online. Eventually, people started taking pictures of food with their phones. And I got wrapped up in that, [as well as] writing. So those two things came together and led me to putting up nutrition tips and recipes, to progressively getting better with my photography. Because I was appearing on CNN, I was also used to doing video. So eventually, I started to translate that into doingmy own videos and putting them on my blog.
How is your community involved?
I've learned so much from other bloggers. We support each other because we're in this alternate universe where our families don't really understand everything we do and if something goes viral, we're the only ones who really care.
Marisa brings healthy, nutritious cooking into fans’ kitchens via the web
I'm also a part of the registered dietitian community, and I also have my [consumer] audience. So I have several different communities that I move about in, and it's all online and all fantastic.
How do you stay in touch with your audience?
Of course, social media —Instagram,Facebook and others. There are several groups that cater specifically to bloggers, and it's a great way to meet people. People can DM me and ask questions. Also, the comments on my blog provides important information from my community. I know the kinds of questions they have and the things they're looking for. I also use a newsletter to stay in touch. And now we're doing lots of virtual events such as live cooking demos.
Marisa stirs up brand awareness on Instagram and other social media platforms
How do you monetize your blog or website?
I didn't add any ads to my blog until 2019. Then, I became part of an ad network, and that's worked out really well. I also have partnerships and ambassadorships where I have some sponsored content and represent clients as a media spokesperson. I do a lot of public speaking and writing for other platforms. I also do a lot of consulting work with restaurants and food companies, separate from my blog. It’s really important to diversify your income if you’re self-employed.
In my work as a registered dietitian, I speak to different groups as well. As a business owner, it’s also important to have a blog, because that's often how people find me. I've gotten some of the best consulting gigs just because someone Googled "registered dietitian in Atlanta," found me and hired me for a job.
Exactly. It’s like the face you have on the web.
It's the one place that you own. And I think that's what's so important, because all of our social media could disappear tomorrow, which would be tragic … but it's really important that we own a piece of the web, and marisamoore.com is my little piece.
In my previous life as a startup entrepreneur, I found that life was more manageable when I was able to stay organized — a task that’s easier said than done. At Google Registry, we've been keeping an eye out for productivity and organization tools, and we’re sharing a few of our favorites with you today, just in time for spring cleaning.
.new shortcuts to save you time
Since launching .new shortcuts last year, we’ve seen a range of companies use .new domains to help their users get things done faster on their websites.
If your digital workspace looks anything like mine, you’ll love these shortcuts: action.new creates a new Workona workspace to organize your Chrome tabs, and task.new helps keep track of your to-dos and projects in Asana.
Bringing together notes and ideas can make it easier to get work done: coda.new creates a new Coda document to collect all your team’s thoughts, and jam.new starts a new collaborative Google Jamboard session.
Spring cleaning wouldn’t be complete without a tidy cupboard: With sell.new you can create an eBay listing in minutes and free up some closet space. And if you own or manage a business, stay on top of your orders and keep services flowing by giving the shortcut — invoice.new — a try.
Visit whats.new to browse all the .new shortcuts, including our Spring Spotlights section.
Six startups helping you increase productivity
We recently sat down with six startups to learn how they’re helping their clients be more productive. From interviewing and hiring, to managing teamwork, calendars and meetings, check out these videos to learn how you can make the most of your time:
Arc.dev connects developers with companies hiring remotely, helping them find their next opportunity.
The founders of byteboard.dev,who came through Area 120, Google’s in-house incubator for experimental projects, thought that technical interviews were inefficient. So they redesigned them from the ground up to be more fair and relevant to real-world jobs.
To run more efficient meetings, try fellow.app. Streamlining agendas, note taking, action items and decision recording can help your team build great meeting habits.
Friday.app helps you organize your day so you can stay focused while sharing and collaborating with remote teammates.
Manage your time productively using inmotion.app, a browser extension that is a search bar, calendar, tab manager and distraction blocker, all in one.
No time to take your pet to the groomers? Find a groomer who will come to you and treat your pet to an in-home grooming session with pawsh.app.
Whether you’re a pet parent, a busy professional or just looking to sell your clutter online, we hope these tools help you organize and save time this season.
While the 2020 Gallup reports shed light on many gaps related to race, gender and community size, we wanted to increase awareness of the gender gap, specifically, since the gender gap for girls and young women is still as stark as it was when we first released the report back in 2015.
Seventy-three percent of boys told researchers they were confident about learning computer science, compared with 60% of girls. (You can see more details in the full report.) Behind these statistics are real students who are missing opportunities for acquiring critical skills, knowledge, and opportunities. When girls miss out on opportunities to learn computer science, the tech industry misses out on their perspectives and potential innovations.
To help bring attention to the challenges, beliefs and stereotypes with which girls grapple, we partnered with London-based designer Sahara Jones to highlight the young girls’ voices behind these statistics:
We’re making these graphics available for advocates, nonprofits and policymakers to use in presentations, publications or on social media. Our goal is to help increase awareness about this important topic and ultimately engage advocates in their own work to close the gender gap in computer science education.
Also, for the first time, we’re making the detailed Gallup data in the report available to all [download here]. Our aim is to provide as much useful information as possible for educators, researchers, journalists and policymakers who care about equity and computer science education. We look forward to seeing how this data is used by the community to advocate for important policies and dedicate resources towards this work. We know there’s a long way to go but we hope that making data from our latest Gallup report freely available will aid in efforts to address equity gaps and make computer science truly open and welcoming to all.
At Google, we are committed to trying to close equity gaps in computer science, whether it’s due to race or ethnicity, gender or other limiting barriers. One of our initiatives is CS First, Google's introductory computer science curriculum targeted at underrepresented primary school students all around the world, including girls. Another is Code Next, which trains the next generation of Black and Latino tech leaders — many of whom are young women — with a free high-school computer science curriculum, mentorship and community events.
We’re grateful to educators for motivating girls to believe in themselves and encouraging them to explore how computer science can support them, no matter what career paths they take. We’re also proud to be part of a group of technology companies, governments and nonprofits in this fight for change.
The Google Ads API v4 and v5 will sunset on June 23, 2021. After this date, all v4 and v5 API requests will begin to fail. Please migrate to a newer version prior to June 23, 2021 to ensure your API access is unaffected.
We've prepared various resources to help you with the migration:
Last week we celebrated Earth Day — the second one that’s taken place during the pandemic. It’s becoming clear that these two challenges aren’t mutually exclusive. We know, for example, that climate change impacts the same determinants of health that worsen the effects of COVID-19. And, as reports have noted, we can’t afford to relax when it comes to the uneven progress we’re making toward a greener future.
At Google, we’re taking stock of where we’ve been and how we can continue building a more sustainable future. We’ve been deeply committed to sustainability ever since our founding two decades ago: we were the first major company to become carbon neutral and the first to match our electricity use with 100 percent renewable energy.
While we lead with our own actions, we can only fully realize the potential of a green and sustainable world through strong partnerships with businesses, governments, and nonprofits. At Google.org, we’re particularly excited about the potential for technology-based solutions from nonprofits and social innovators. Time and again we hear from social entrepreneurs who have game-changing ideas but need a little boost to bring them to life.
Through programs like our AI for Social Good Initiative and our most recent Google.org Impact Challenge on Climate, we are helping find, fund, and build these ideas. Already they’re having significant impact on critical issues from air quality to emissions analysis. In this month’s digest, you can read more about some of these ideas and the mark they’re making on the world.
In case you missed it
Earlier this month, Google sharedour latest series of commitments to support vaccine equity efforts across the globe. As part of this, Google.org is supporting Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, in their latest fundraising push with initial funding to help fully vaccinate 250,000 people in low and middle income countries, technical assistance to improve their vaccine delivery systems and accelerate global distribution and Ad Grants to amplify fundraising efforts. We’ve since kicked off an internal giving campaign to increase our impact, bringing the total vaccinations funded to 880,000 to date, which includes matching funds from Gavi. And in the U.S., we’ve provided $2.5 million in overall grants to Partners in Health, Stop the Spread and Team Rubicon who are working directly with 500 community-based organizations to boost vaccine confidence and increase access to vaccines in Black, Latino and rural communities.
Gavin McCormick, Executive Director of WattTime
Hear from one of our grantees: WattTime
Gavin McCormick is the Executive Director of WattTime, a nonprofit that offers technology solutions that make it easy for anyone to achieve emissions reductions. WattTime is an AI Impact Challenge grantee and received both funding and a cohort of Google.org Fellows to help support their work, particularly a project that helps individuals and corporations understand how to use energy when it’s most sustainable and allows regulators to understand the state of global emissions.
“Data insights powered by AI help drive innovative solutions — from streaming services’ content suggestions to navigation on maps. But they’re still not often applied to some of the biggest challenges of our time like the climate crisis. My organization harnesses AI to empower people and companies alike to choose cleaner energy and slash emissions. Like enabling smart devices such as thermostats and electric vehicles to use electricity when power is clean and avoid using electricity when it’s dirty. Now with support from Google.org, we’re working with members of Climate TRACE — a global coalition we co-founded in 2019 of nonprofits, tech companies and climate leaders — to apply satellite imagery and other remote sensing technology to estimate nearly all types of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions in close to real time. We can’t solve the climate crisis if we don’t have an up-to-date understanding of where the emissions are coming from.”
Alok Talekar, a Google.org Fellow with WattTime
A few words with a Google.org Fellow: Alok Talekar
Alok Talekar is a software engineer at Google who participated in a Google.org Fellowship with WattTime.
“I am a software engineer at Google and work on AI for social good with a focus on the agricultural sector in India. The Climate TRACE Google.org Fellowship with WattTime gave me the opportunity to change my career trajectory and work on climate crisis solutions full time. The mission that Gavin McCormick and team are pursuing is ambitious, and technology can help make it a reality. Over the course of the Fellowship, the team was able to use machine learning to process satellite imagery data of power plants around the world and determine when a particular plant was operational based on the imagery provided. I then helped the team to model and validate the bounds of accuracy of this approach in order to predict the cumulative annual emissions of a given power plant. I was proud to be able to contribute to the project in its early days and to be part of the core team that helped build this massive coalition for monitoring global emissions.”
Applications are now open for Canada’s first accelerator, entirely dedicated to cloud-native technology startups. We’re inviting up to twelve Canadian startups to participate in an intensive 10-week virtual bootcamp to prepare them for their next phase of growth.
The past year has shown us the critical role cloud technologies play, for businesses, governments, nonprofits and consumers. Throughout the pandemic, cloud technologies helped organizations across the globe navigate uncertainty -- from healthcare systems shifting care models, government agencies looking to serve communities and ward off economic hardships, consumer goods and media companies adapting to dramatic shifts in consumer behaviour, and others supporting remote workforces while maintaining business continuity and uptime of their mission-critical systems.
Think about grocery click and collect. In the early days of the pandemic, getting a grocery click and collect slot was similar to trying to purchase seats for a Toronto Raptors playoff game, or snag tickets to a Hamilton performance on Broadway. As online traffic for grocery skyrocketed, grocery stores across the country needed a way to meet the demand. Our own Google Cloud team quickly worked with Loblaws to create a dedicated task force with its digital technology team to pack and fulfill orders faster so they could meet the growing demand.
Today, we’re excited to announce that applications are open for the first-ever Google Cloud Accelerator Canada. This 10-week virtual accelerator program is designed to bring the best of Google's programs, products, people and technology to startups doing interesting work in the cloud. In addition to cloud mentorship and technical project support, the accelerator also includes deep dives and workshops focused on product design, customer acquisition and leadership development for startup founders and leaders.
The accelerator program is best suited for funded, revenue generating startups who have a minimum of five employees and are well-positioned for their next phase of growth. In order to ensure Google can provide meaningful value, startups should aim to leverage either Cloud or AI/ML technologies in their product, service, or operations or show an interest in leveraging these technologies in the future. The inaugural Google Cloud Accelerator Canada cohort will kick off in July 2021 and run for 10 weeks. The first cohort will consist of 8-12 innovative cloud-native technology startups in Canada.
If your startup is leveraging the cloud to drive growth and innovation, make sure you apply for Canada’s first Google Cloud Accelerator by May 28, 2021 - we’re excited to hear from you.
Posted by Ashley Francisco Head of Startup Developer Ecosystem, Google Canada
